Beyond Borders: Pix’s Evolution From Domestic Powerhouse to International Player

PYMNTS Intelligence data has detailed the ways in which various economies around the globe have “plugged in” to a broad range of digital activities, spanning everything from working to communicating to, of course, shopping.

Brazil has been a standout across virtually all metrics, as the 11 pillars of the “ConnectedEconomy,” as measured by PYMNTS, are all firmly part of the fabric of everyday life. Broadly speaking, Brazil’s population logs Brazil has 361 activity days (12 per day), far outpacing the overall average of 281 activity days.

Within the population of 215 million individuals, two-thirds of consumers had smartphones and 92% had access to at least a 4G network — which indicates that the majority of the population has the infrastructure in hand, quite literally, to remain firmly tethered to the digital world.

About 75% of consumers had a debit card that year, and 77% used instant payment system Pix as recently as 2022, indicating that online banking — where our stats show that nearly two-thirds of consumers engage with financial services firms through mobile means — is a way of life. So is shopping online, where consumers spend a bit more than 22 days annually online, cumulatively.

Recent statistics from the country’s central bank on the use of Pix indicate that P2B use cases are growing by leaps and bounds, both online and in-store. The daily volumes, accessible here, indicate that, for instance, on Black Friday (Nov. 29), there were 239 million transactions, for a value of about 130 billion reais (about $21 billion), which was up nearly 121% from the same day a year ago. Recent surges in the first few days of the current month indicate continued spending; by way of example, on Dec. 6, as the central bank data indicates, there were 250 billion transactions, equating to 124.2 billion reais (about $20.3 billion).

Speeding Checkout and Expanding Pix’s Reach

A recent set of announcements and partnerships over the past few months point to the expanding the use of Pix, speeding up the process of checkouts and shifting use of the instant payments offering beyond Brazil’s borders.

As reported by PYMNTS late last month, cross-border payment platform dLocal — having become a certified payment service provider in Brazil — can now facilitate Pix payments directly within the Open Finance ecosystem, without redirecting users to bank apps. As noted in the company’s announcement, the certification enables dLocal to deliver streamlined checkout by eliminating unnecessary steps when Pix payments are used, which in turn boosts merchant conversion rates.

Also in November, Peru’s B89 teamed with PagBrasil, which develops cross-border solutions for Brazil’s Pix payment system.

The partnership will let B89 — a digital financial solutions company — offer the real-time payment services of Pix International to merchants outside Brazil. By integrating Pix International, merchants in Latin American countries beyond Brazil can offer Brazilian customers a better payment experience when buying from physical and eCommerce retailers, according to the November announcement.

Separately, in illustration of the further digitization of brick-and-mortar commerce, Pix by Proximity was announced last month and is available for digital wallet users, and will be offered to all Pix users starting in February of next year. The system will let users pay by placing their phones near payment terminals, using bank accounts connected to Google Wallet.

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